When Jesus taught His disciples to pray, “Father, let Your Kingdom come,” it was the entering of an urgent plea to the Father that His Kingdom would become present and known with us now, with its protection and provision.
There are two significant bookends to Jesus’ human life. And they both have to do with what He said as He began His ministry and, His last days on earth.
How He Began
Matthew 4:17 tells us He began by saying, “Repent, for the Kingdom of the Heavens is at hand.” (Weymouth). When the Lord Jesus came to earth – as a baby born of the Spirit of God and human flesh – His Father’s Kingdom already existed in Him. The first thirty years of His life were filled with many things that make up a human earthly existence. It was after He was baptized, the Holy Spirit come to rest upon Him, and being tested that the Kingdom’s nearness was revealed.
I cannot say it more heartily: there is no one who knows us and life in this world as believers like Jesus does. To hear, admit, and believe that for our lives, families, Body of Christ, and world concerns is to take to heart,
For we have not a High Priest who is unable to feel for us in our weaknesses, but one who was tempted in every respect just as we are tempted and yet did not sin. (Hebrews 4:15)
Kingdoms have been and are being built. The Kingdom of God is not one of them. It’s always been. Jesus came carrying it within Himself, demonstrating the Kingdom He said was near and accessible, now. The Kingdom of God was never separated from His Person. Telling His followers He would never leave them nor forsake them, is why He taught them – and us today – to pray with the cry of a heart in need of an urgent response from the Source of Heaven’s resolutions, now! As Servant bearing His Father’s Kingdom on earth, Jesus prayed often.
His Last Days on Earth and Beyond
Jesus had much to say and a short time to say it in His last days on earth after His resurrection. In Acts 1:3, Luke (after first writing one of the four Gospels) records that Jesus spent His remaining time, “Speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.”
For forty days He intermittently showed up among these He had chosen, delivering what needed to be shared before His ascension into Heaven. The disciples who were with Him on the Mount of Olives stood staring up at the clouds when two men clothed in white robes appeared next to them. “Why do you stand staring into the sky? This same Jesus who has been taken from you into Heaven will come in the same way you saw Him go.”1
While this was occurring, Christ Jesus was seated once and for all as a King at His coronation. His throne has been forever established. There is no evil force from hell that can overrule Him or move Him from His position.
What Paul taught the Ephesian believers in his epistle to them is also for us who are true believers in Jesus. He makes it clear we have been brought into the Kingdom with Christ, to live as sons and daughters of our Father.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the intense love which He bestowed on us, caused us, dead though we were through our offences, to live with Christ–it is by grace that you have been saved–raised us with Him from the dead, and enthroned us with Him in the heavenly realms as being in Christ Jesus, in order that, by His goodness to us in Christ Jesus, He might display in the Ages to come the transcendent riches of His grace. Ephesians 2:4-7 (Weymouth)
Our Praying Priest-King
Some time ago, I was struck one day with the activity taking place in Heaven. You know those times when suddenly, your mind knows something is true. When He was on earth, Jesus moved in accordance with His Father’s movements in the heavens.2 That hasn’t stopped, since it is now Holy Spirit with us carrying on that same movement in one accord with the Father’s heart and will. It is we who being teachable, move by Him.
The one accord we are exhorted to be in with one another will find Holy Spirit directing us to the Father. Not the pseudo one accord of popular opinion, crowdsourcing, or the us vs them attitudes portrayed among us.
This movement of activity now in Heaven has little to do with the building of mansions for the sweet by and by, or yet another ‘movement’ that keeps churches and groups busy about something. It has much to do with our level of desperation for God’s Kingdom to come into the middle of any circumstances in which we find ourselves. Jesus was acquainted with prayers of desperation. Now enthroned as King, and one Day for all to witness, He hasn’t stopped praying, so we may know the deliverance His Kingdom offers. Now and future.
Scripture tells us He ever intercedes on our behalf while we live our lives here on earth.3 How powerful an increase to our faith, to consider that we serve a King in His Kingdom, who hasn’t worn in His prayers for us. How much more should we be willingly persistent in asking for our Father’s Kingdom to come in our lives?
Note:
As noted in The Flow Toward “Pray Without Ceasing” not precluding prayer gatherings and prayer partners, so too we do not de-legitimize large gatherings that some ‘movements’ bring together. However, if the movement or program takes on a life of its own with only slight attention given to Jesus, it becomes merely a cause operating in accord with man’s agenda while overlooking the very Source and One Whose Kingdom it is.
In Matthew 19:14, Jesus said to not hinder the little children from coming to Him, for it was those who possess childlike qualities of trust, humility, and willingness to be dependent to whom the Kingdom belongs. He knows every heart ready to receive God’s reign and rule of their life, the very Kingdom of God given entrance.4 Birthright does not depend on nor flow from movements we generate, but by the Father’s movements in His Kingdom. Jesus said, “Follow Me” and “learn of Me.” Don’t be deluded that we ever outgrow the Son of God.
Let Your Kingdom Come…NOW, into this present situation!
What does it mean when Paul wrote by the Holy Spirit that we are seated with Christ in heavenly realms?
Seated in spirit in the heavenlies with Christ, we live, move and have our being here on earth. The mystery of being in Christ means we are asking that the Kingdom we are already part of, come now in our lives. The Kingdom that belongs to us as a child of God is not about title or position, but its very presence and power.
What our Father has declared is ours to uphold. What Jesus Christ already accomplished is ours to apprehend. The Greek speaks to both as (something done in the) past, but with continuing effect, reaching into the present. The presence and power of the Kingdom operates from such, as does Christ’s blood shed for us.
Given everything we need for life and godliness, there is so much of which we’ve barely taken hold. These days the evil one is pressing his rule on every side. Hope lies in God’s Kingdom coming in its fullness, delay no longer an option. Let us not delay praying, “Let Your Kingdom come, now, into this present situation!”
Ask. Father already knows. Ask anyway.
To pray the cry of a heart in need of an urgent response reaches the heart of God. There are some who debate why we need to ask, when scripture tells us the Father already knows our need before we ask. Scripture also exhorts us we have not because we ask not. Cherry-picking is not the cry of a heart in need.
The presence of the Kingdom means a lot of different things, not the least of which are the petitions of His heart that Jesus taught in the manner to pray. We have far more to take to heart in the five yet before us.
But, for now, there are realizations and immediate awareness of our need for our Father’s Kingdom to make itself known in all things that pertain to our spirit, our soul, and our body. That of which our life is comprised.
*Protection and Provision should be ours as soon as we make known our need and our cry reaches His heart.
*The presence of God’s Kingdom means the overthrow of Satan’s hand upon our life, now, in the present. Satan’s defeat at the Cross of Christ is a victorious example of something done in the past, but with continuing effect, reaching into the present.
*The Kingdom’s presence means that when we need strength, His strength is there.
*Its presence means when we ask for wisdom as James 1:5 instructs us, His wisdom is released into our minds.
*Faced with the necessary supply of our needs, His Kingdom brings present supply, at times in ways we can only ascribe to His miracle outlay of provision.
*Psalm 91:3 speaks of the snare of the fowler. When peace, safety, and protection from the enemy’s traps are our high need, the Kingdom’s presence means that peace, safety, and protection is ours.
What do you have need of?
The prayers of each one are as varied and personal as the needs for which heart-cries ascend to the Father. What do you have need of? It’s the same question Jesus asked of those who approached Him or were brought to Him by those who cared about their needs and conditions.
One of the greatest free gifts we have received is access to our Father’s heart. In the same way that Jesus made lavish use of prayer to His Father, so too we may stay strengthened, heard, and close to our Father’s heart every time – whenever and wherever – we find ourselves in need of an urgent response from Heaven.
As we do, our spirits will find their response in the life-flow generated by our communion with the Father.
These are not the ways humanity tends to approach what they cannot see. It is easier, for a while, to embark, execute, and empower effects guided by earthly ways of thinking. But we have been given the mind of Christ.5
It was for our benefit – what He called His abundant life – that Jesus made use of every opportunity as He walked this earth to speak of the things pertaining to the Father’s Kingdom. Father, let Your Kingdom come.
~ Nancy
Recommended reading: Pattern of Seven: The Armor of God ~ Breastplate of Righteousness (Servant); Servant Portion; Vineyard Days – Through the Lattice I, II, & III; and Royalty Realm – A Teachable Spirit
1 Acts 1:1-11 2 John 15:5 3 Romans 8:34 4 Revelation 3:20 in context of verses 19-22 5 I Corinthians 2:13
Click here for a printable PDF of this article: Redemptive Gifts Pattern of Seven – Father, Let Your Kingdom Come
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